TMZ is reporting that disco diva Donna Summer passed away Thursday morning at the age of 63. After a battle with cancer, she succumbed to the disease while in Florida. From TMZ:
Donna Summer — the Queen of Disco — died this morning after a battle with cancer … TMZ has learned.
We’re told Summer was in Florida at the time of her death. She was 63 years old.
Sources close to Summer tell us … the singer was trying to keep the extent of her illness under wraps. We spoke to someone who was with Summer a couple of weeks ago … who says she didn’t seem too bad.
In fact, we’re told she was focused on trying to finish up an album she had been working on.
A winner of five Grammy awards, she is synonymous with disco music of the ’70s often introducing innovative sounds to dance music with longtime collaborator and producer Giorgio Moroder. Key disco hits include the groundbreaking “I Feel Love,” “Hot Stuff” and “Bad Girls.”
In the early ’80s as disco simmered and AIDS grew, she was often criticized for rumored statements that evoked homophobia. She allegedly had commented that AIDS was God’s punishment on gays for their lifestyle. The rumors haunted her career even as she denied them.
With a slight resurgence in the mid-’80s, she found renewed footing both on the charts and with gay fans. With hits such as “She Works Hard for the Money” and “This Time I Know It’s For Real,” she returned to the dance charts and the turntable of gay club DJs.
Summer’s last album, Crayons, was released in 2008 and peaked at 17 on the Billboard 200. She is survived by her husband and producer Bruce Sudano and three daughters, Mimi, Brooklyn and Amanda.
Below is video of Summer singing “Last Dance” at the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
So sad. What a vocalist. Her music brought such joy to so many.
RIP Donna, you brought so much joy to thousands of gay men including me. I danced to your music when I first came out back in the 70’s.
Rest in peace, Donna Summer. Your music was the soundtrack for the journeys of self-discovery that so many gay men travelled 30 years ago. Your music will live on with those whose lives you touched, until we, too, share a Last Dance with you.
Donna Summer – THE Voice of my generation – Madge, Xtina, Britney, Gaga, take notice and RECOGNIZE……….
Who can forget, if you were there, the Donna Summer concert in Dallas at the then Smirnoff Center some years back? One of the best outdoor concerts, party, gay pride, celebration I can recall. And her music made the “tea dance” what it was. A friend quoted yesterday… “Heaven Knows her Last Dance will not be forgotten.”
I am still in shock over this entire story. DONNA SUMMER WAS THE ULTIMATE QUEEN OF DISCO!!! Before there was Gloria Gaynor, Carol Douglas, Thelma Houston, Linda Clifford, France Joli, Loleatta Holloway, Viola Wills and countless other Disco Divas, THERE WAS DONNA SUMMER. She was the voice that started it all, just when the Disco-era was starting to come into full swing during the early to mid-70s. Donna Summer, along with all these wonderfully gifted and talented artists set the sound of a decade many years ago, and literally shaped the music industry for many years to come with other recording artists that would follow in their footsteps, up to the present day. I grew up listening and dancing to Donna Summer’s music and she is one of the many reasons why I become a DJ many years ago. Like Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Barry White, Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye, Teena Marie, Loleatta Holloway, Whitney Houston, Etta James and countless other recording artist pioneers that we have lost from the Disco/R&B music genres in recent times, Donna Summer WILL BE REMEMBERED as one of the originals. Her music, her legacy and her human spirit will live on in all of our hearts and on the dancefloor forever!!
“In my world, that “Last Dance” will never end! I LOVE YOU DEAR DONNA!!!”
May she REST IN PEACE and may GOD BLESS her spirit and her soul!!!
There is a generation of gay men, of which I am one, where Donna was a part of us growing up through or teens to our fifties. I felt a bit of me died. But like her 90’s version of Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, I won’t cry for her, and I don’t care if I look foolish and tragic at a bar when MacArthur Park comes on & I take off my shirt, beer or bottled water in hand, I Know This Time It’s For Real.